Naruto: The Forgotten Summons
by DenimGiant
Summary: Before the rise of the ninja, before the Sage of Six Paths, spirits roamed the land. Sealed into summon scrolls by the most powerful ninja to ever live, they waited. Now Naruto has stumbled across one, and he will never be the same.
1. Chapter 1: First Encounter

The Forgotten Summons

"Normal Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_Flashback"_

"**Jutsu/Summon/Demon"**

AN: I will be posting pictures of each type of creature in the summons on my profile. Take a look if my descriptions don't do the trick. Also for those who don't know, the first four chapters are rewritten from the original version.

Chapter 1: First Encounter

It was a bright sunny day in the land of Fire, the Village Hidden in the Leaves was bustling with activity. Civilians walked in the streets, going about their business while the ever present ninja used the rooftops and their control of the bodily energy known as chakra to move from training fields to the Hokage Tower, to the massive gate where they would receive their assignments.

A multitude of ninja made up the ranks of the Konoha Shinobi, from the Hyuuga to the Akimichi. There was a diverse and unique mixture of ninja that made up the infamous teams of Konoha.

One such team was currently on a very important mission. Team 7 led by Hatake Kakashi was tracking their mission target through the forest surrounding the village. Kakashi had opted to sit this one out for "teamwork building" reasons. He lounged in the comfortable nook of a tree, reading his favorite book while he listened and occasionally directed his students.

"This is Ramen, I'm in position. You there Pinky?"

Silence was all he heard over the radio. Finally, a voice spoke up. "I don't want the codename Pinky."

Kakashi spoke up to quell any insubordination, "Codenames are what they are, report in Pinky." A sigh was heard, "Pinky in position."

The one codenamed Ramen snickered and waited for their last teammate to report in. He decided to give some encouragement. "Well?"

A voice was heard, "This is Duck-butt, in position." The voice was practically growling the response out.

Ramen snickered, "We are in position, Lazy Pervert we are waiting for your signal to go." Kakashi sighed at his codename, the idea had been to let everyone pick the codename of a fellow teammate. It was a good idea but the execution had gone downhill from the moment he named Sakura "Pinky." She had quickly chosen Naruto's name, who had chosen Sasuke's, who had taken his anger out on Kakashi.

Next time he'd just call them Minion 1, 2, and 3. Maybe that meant he could be called Overlord, he liked the sound of that.

"You have permission to start the op, subdue the target so we can go home." Kakashi listened with slight winces now and again as the screeching of a wild animal and the grunts and cries of his students echoed through the headpiece.

* * *

Naruto was struggling with a furiously struggling cat in his arms. The animal was scratching and wriggling as Naruto desperately tried to hold on to it. He really didn't want to have to chase this thing down again.

Unfortunately, fate had decided to screw him over, again. The demon cat wriggled furiously and jumped off his head to start sprinting through the forest. Naruto quickly regained pursuit as he radioed his teammates to try and pincer the damn beast.

But apparently, fate had decided to throw Naruto a bone. As he pursued the cat Tora, he noticed that he had come upon an old shrine, it looked to be Shinto in origin although he wondered why a temple was so close to a ninja village. The temples had drawn away from a world dominated by ninja and practiced their religion behind closed doors.

Turning his attention back to Tora, he jumped after the cat as it landed on top of a boarded up well. It looked back at him and quickly jumped away again. Naruto cursed and tried to change direction mid-air, but he landed exactly where he had aimed.

The wood that had so sturdily stood up to the weight of a house-cat, quickly broke as Naruto came to rest on it. Naruto let out a yell and fell down the long shaft in the ground. He scrambled against the walls in an attempt to slow his fall to no success. He hit the ground hard and everything went black.

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes again, it was to almost complete darkness. He groaned and picked himself up slowly. He had landed on his back and pain shot through his entire body. He slowly moved around and to his relief, all the pain was dull, no sharp stabbing pains were felt which meant he probably avoided breaking anything.

He looked up, wincing as another lance of pain shot through his neck. He could see a small sliver of light at the top of the well shaft from where he had crashed through. From the pale light shining through, it looked like the moon was out. That meant he had been passed out for hours.

"HELLO! ANYBODY THERE?" His shout echoed up the well, but after a few minutes of waiting and some more shouting, he concluded that no one was outside to hear his calls. Grumbling to himself, he sat down and started thinking about how to get out of here.

When he sat down, he became aware of some loose stones lying around the bottom of the shaft, they seemed to be concentrated on one side and Naruto was grateful. Landing on that pile of stones would have seriously hurt. Digging through his belt pouch, he pulled out a small flashlight and flicked it on.

Shining the light around the broken stones, he saw what looked like a gap in the stones at the bottom of the well. Moving forward he pulled away some of the rocks and peered inside.

A tunnel, very small and very rough looking, lay beyond the opening. Naruto debated, he could either sit here and wait for someone to wander by, or try and see where this lead. He personally wanted to just say screw it, and try climbing the walls, but a quick look up shattered that thought. The walls were slimy with moss and something else, and the well was too wide for him to wedge himself against them.

The smell decided it for him. The well smelled damp and rotten, the air was sticky against his skin and there was no way he was waiting here for rescue. Turning to the opening, he put the flashlight in his mouth and started crawling.

For once, he was glad of his short stature, he doubted if he would make it through without being able to hunch down so small.

When the tunnel finally stopped, he cursed. He was faced with another stone wall, it looked like someone from the well had tried to tunnel out. He turned away and as he did so, he noticed something

When he had been facing the wall, his flashlight had been shining directly at it, now that he was turned away, he saw a little light shining from the stone. Turning off his flashlight and tucking it away, he pressed his face to the stone.

Small gaps between the stones, from where the roots of trees had shifted them, allowed him to peek into what looked like a room. Shifting himself so his feet were closest to the stone, he started kicking. His legs hurt but he persevered.

Eventually, one of the stones shifted, and he let out a cry of triumph as he worked the loose stone back and forth. Finally with a heave of effort and a crash, the stone popped free and fell in to what he now saw was a wide stone chamber.

Squeezing through his newly made gap, he wriggled his body through and fell with a thud into the chamber. Standing up, he looked around with amazement. The walls of the chamber were decorated with carvings and symbols. He recognized some of the things depicted as creatures from the myths of the land before the ninja existed. Looking on in amazement, he remembered reading about these creatures in folk tales, sometimes his only source of comfort on lonely nights. The stories of travelers and adventurers braving demons and aided by benevolent spirits always filled him with a sense of wonder.

Turning his attention to the center of the room, he walked up to a small stand. It was flanked by two pedestals upon which sat dishes that had fire burning in them. Naruto looked and saw nothing in the braziers that was burning, the flames just seemed to exist by themselves.

He looked at the stand between them and examined what appeared to be a small box, the moment his hand touched the box, the braziers blazed with light and illuminated the shadowy back of the room. He looked up to see a massive painting of a crimson nine-tailed fox fighting with a white wolf, the animals were writhing in between each other locked in mortal combat. The stone had been inked in and despite the apparent age of the room, the paint looked as new as if painted yesterday.

'Is that the Kyuubi?' Naruto looked on in wonder at the intricate statue that seemed to depict the demon in him. A small click echoed through the room and Naruto looked down to see the box was slightly open, the lock on the front having popped loose.

Reaching down slowly, he pushed back the lid to find a small scroll sitting innocently inside. "Damn, an awesome place like this and there's nothing but a stupid scroll." His muttering continued as he reached down and picked up the scroll.

* * *

He blinked, 'Wait, when did I end up in a sewer?'

True enough, he was standing in what looked to be a sewer. The water came up to his ankles, and pipes ran along the walls. He shivered as he heard a growl echo through the place.

He slowly turned around, the black of the sewer extended as far as he could see, ending in an inky blackness. He turned around again to where he was originally facing and screamed.

He was now facing a massive gate, intricate designs ran along the top and bottom of the doors that had colossal bars running through them. A small piece of paper lay upon the doors like a lock, the kanji for seal lay upon it.

Behind the bars lay the stuff of Naruto's nightmares. A massive head lifted out of the darkness and pulled its lips back to reveal a giant set of teeth. Blood red eyes burned with an otherworldly intensity and Naruto felt a massive weight come crashing down on his back when he locked eyes with those red demonic pits. He trembled as he had trouble breathing, and searched for something, anything to say to get this to stop. He suddenly latched onto something he remembered from his childhood. 'Well, fortune favors the brave.'

"My, what big teeth you have."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

**"What did you say?"**

The crushing weight had disappeared, Naruto was breathing easily again as the fox did its best to adopt a confused expression with a face that really only did angry looks. The massive Kitsune raised itself up on its legs and padded forward. Naruto tentatively took a step back before tripping as the Kyuubi shrunk and shifted.

When it finally reached the bars, a human female stood in its place. A simple red yukata adorned the voluptuous frame of the red-haired woman. She growled and reached a hand forward, waving Naruto closer.

"Come on runt, I don't have all day." Her voice would probably be beautiful if it didn't sound so angry. Naruto stumbled forward, wondering absently why he was getting closer to a demon. She frowned at him, "That's not nice you know."

Naruto shrieked, "Y-you can r-r-read my mind?" She seemed to bite back a vicious comment, "Not usually, only when you're really distracted, that's when I can read the barest surface thoughts. Now will you hurry up?" Naruto walked tentatively closer, "What do you wa-" He was cut off when Kyuubi snaked a hand out through the bars and grabbed him by his shirt.

Naruto started screaming before she reached out her other hand and slapped him. He quickly shut up when it seemed like she wasn't going to kill him. Small tendrils of red chakra seeped into him for a few seconds then stopped.

She let go of him suddenly, he crashed to the floor in a heap as she walked away back into her cage. "Hey, what was that?" She paused and turned to face him, "The scroll you picked up was slowly killing you. While my chakra is being constantly leeched away by this damned seal, it's converted into human chakra as your pathetic body couldn't handle much of my awesome power. I overflowed the connection a bit and the scroll should now recognize my, shall we say "unique" signature."

Naruto looked at her quizzically, "Why would it stop just because my chakra has your signature?"

The Kyuubi smirked a bit, "I'm sure you'll figure it out."

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes and looked around, he was back in the weird room and the scroll was clutched in his hand. He looked down and quickly let go of the thing that Kyuubi said was killing him. It dropped to the floor, and he noticed a handprint was curled around the scroll in the same place he was holding it.

The handprint turned red and started to sizzle, Naruto realized that this wasn't good.

"Ah shit."

That was all he got out before the scroll unfurled and smoke billowed out, it quickly enveloped him and he was gripped by the most vertigo-inducing feeling he ever had. When the world stopped doing cartwheels in his gut, he looked up and saw the smoke recede back down into the scroll.

Looking up, he saw that he was in a circular chamber with a lone chair in the center and raised seats circling the walls. He jumped as a heavy hand clapped onto his shoulder. He slowly turned around to stare at a very tall man with the ugliest face he had ever seen glaring down at him. A single horn curved up out of its forehead and a massive club rested on its back.

Naruto felt like wetting himself as what he recognized as an oni growled out in a deep, gravelly voice, "So kid, mind explaining what my boss is doing inside you?"

Naruto whimpered as the oni grinned nastily at him. A voice rang out behind the oni and Naruto gasped as a what seemed to be a tengu walked up. The crow head was cocked to one side, a beady, black eye staring at him as it spoke. The pale blue samurai armor it wore clinked softly, the ornate daisho pair at its waist softly shifting with each step it took.

"Saburo please, you're scaring the child out of its wits. And you know perfectly well why one of the heavenly pair is sealed inside the boy." The oni stepped back and turned to the tengu, "Yeah I know, but its been so long since I got to have some fun, I thought it would be fun to scare him a bit." The tengu waved him aside as it stepped forward, "Yes well, you go over there for a bit while I sort this all out." The oni, Saburo, grumbled and walked off to one of the tall chairs, walking up the stairs that curved around the square pillar of stone upon which a carved chair sat.

The tengu turned back to face Naruto. "Hello child, can you hear me?" Naruto nodded, "Good, what is your name?" Naruto slowly opened his mouth, but the only question that came out was the one that was burning in his gut.

"Are you really a tengu?" The tengu nodded, "Yes, my name is Hayato, please don't mind Saburo over there, he's always grouchy. Now," Hayato straightened up, looking Naruto over with a critical eye. "No, no, no, this will never do. But that can wait. I'm guessing from the scroll at your feet and the comments made my my colleague that you are the jinchuriki for the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Am I correct?"

Naruto stared at him, "You're a tengu." Hayato sighed, "Yes Naruto I am, and I'm going to go ahead and say yes you are the jinchuriki in question. Do you know what this is?"

Reaching down, Hayato picked up the small scroll and held it up in front of Naruto. The young boy shook his head. Naruto honestly had no idea what the hell was going on and he didn't like it. Unfortunately for him, the itching he had been feeling at the back of his head suddenly burst into a blossom of agonizing pain, clutching his head, Naruto gave a short yell and collapsed to the ground.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, he sighed. The sewer of his mind was back.

He turned in a quick circle and came face to face with the Kyuubi. "You know, you could just ask." The demon snorted and glared down at him, her visage staying in the form of the massive monster this time.

"**Listen well mortal, the scroll you stumbled upon is extremely important. Listen to Hayato and listen well. He's probably going to give you a better shot at survival than almost any other method you could find. Now, that scroll? The one that nearly killed you?**" She waited and Naruto quickly nodded to show he knew what she was talking about.

"**Good, at least you're not brain-damaged. Now listen up because this is important. All those creatures you've read about in the old stories are real. We existed long before the Sage of Six Paths. The truth is that instead of destroying us, he sealed us away so that our power could be utilized. It was a nice idea, but then he went and sealed us all over the Elemental Countries. Saburo was my most trusted general until the Sage sealed him alongside Hayato who was the general of my counterpart.**"

"Why didn't the Sage seal you as well?"

"**Because, I and the others of my kind are forces of nature, to seal us away would be the same as sealing away the sun or the oceans. While the Sage certainly had the power to do so, he wisely realized that certain forces needed to remain free to ensure balance in the world. Unfortunately, your precious First Hokage didn't realize the same thing.**"

"What do you mean?" Naruto was starting to get confused, but was barely following the basic idea.

"**He was the one who captured all the tailed beasts in the first place and he invented the idea of the jinchuriki. When he did this, the world started to fall into darkness. Surely you've noticed? The start of three Massive wars that have ripped apart nations when before our sealing the largest devastation was the defeat of a clan? The nationalization of murder and war for profit and the conscription of children as soldiers. The world you live in is corrupt and there is a reason for all of it.**"

"What reason?" Naruto was now not only confused, but scared.

She grinned, a smile that seemed to stretch unnaturally wide, revealing a set of massive razor sharp teeth. Then she chuckled, a deep rumbling laugh that filled the air with malice as her killing intent flooded the cavern. "**Simple, you humans have feared me and all the tailed beasts as the worst natural disasters to exist. But, as is the way of your short-lived species, you don't realize that there are things in the darkest corners of the world much, much worse than me. But enough history for today. What you need to think about right now is where you are.**"

The pressure seemed to evaporate as Naruto found himself able to breathe again.

Naruto heaved himself to his feet and realized he didn't remember falling to his hands and knees, "So why did I find the seal with your general?"

Kyuubi stared at him, "**Honestly? I have absolutely no idea, the odds of me being in your gut, and that you found my particular seal is almost impossible. You must have the best luck in the world kid. Now on to business.**"

She got a serious look on her face, "**This is a rare opportunity for you, Saburo and Hayato may not be the most powerful anymore but in terms of teachers, there are none finer.**"

Naruto stood there with a dumb expression on his face, "What?"

Kyuubi growled in annoyance, "**I've had enough of your stupidity.**" With a roar, Naruto found himself thrown backwards and felt himself flying through the air before he suddenly came to.

* * *

'This is getting old, why can't they give me some warning when I'm about to enter the recesses of my mind to talk with the malevolent demon spirit sealed inside me?' That was the first thought that went through his mind when he opened his eyes to see the circular chamber again. His next thought was simpler as he hit the floor. 'Ow.'

Sitting up, he blinked away the spots in his vision. He picked himself up, which was becoming a really common occurrence, and turned to Hayato. The tengu tensed up at the gleam in Naruto's eyes, combined with the creepy grin that was spreading across the boys face, and Hayato was seriously wondering what was going through the boys mind.

"Kyuubi talked to me, she told me everything about the seals and how you two are generals of some sort! So when do I get some kickass training?" Hayato motioned for Naruto to sit, once he did so, the bird-man went into his explanation. "Now, Kyuubi-sama mentioned the other creatures sealed across the land right?" Naruto nodded.

"Well, this is a little complicated but stay with me. The only way someone can unseal and control the other summons is with the assistance of the heavenly pair, it was a security measure put in place by the Sage of Six Paths when he sealed us away. As Kyuubi is sealed inside you, you should be able to go and unseal one of her weakest followers. The seal is on the wall of the chamber where you found the scroll. Look along the wall closest to the fox and you will see it. But careful, for without the aid of Shiranui the White Wolf, the other wall holds your doom."

As he talked, the large oni, Saburo, walked up. "I got to say kid, I'm pretty excited about all this. Me and Hayato have been stuck in this thing for well over a hundred years with nothing to do but play shogi, and suddenly you show up. Frankly, we can't wait for you to get us out into the world." Hayato nodded at this, "While I don't make it a habit to agree with my colleague, I must confess that I too am excited. Now, I must ask the question that has been pressing on my mind. How exactly did you find our scroll? Last I remember, it was in an underground chamber beneath a temple guarded by monks."

Naruto's eyes bugged out, "Oh crap! I need to get back soon! They'll be sending out search parties." Hayato nodded quickly, "Well, I should be able to reverse summon you the place you found the scroll. Once you're there, look behind the statue of Kyuubi-sama and Shiranui-sama for a small catch in the wall, pull on it and a door should reveal itself. That door will lead you to the temple above and you should be able to get home from there. Before you leave though, I will teach you how to summon us. The regular seals for the lesser clans will suffice, simply perform these handseals and call out the name of whoever you wish to aid you."

He showed Naruto the seals and then motioned Naruto to stand, once he did so, Hayato reached out and grasped Naruto's right arm in his taloned hand. Pulling out a brush and some ink, Hayato drew an intricate seal on Naruto's forearm. Once he was done, he moved aside and signaled Saburo forward.

The oni stepped forward and placed his hand on top of Hayato's, the seal glowed a bit before it sizzled and smoked. Naruto grit his teeth at the pain until it passed. When the two creatures pulled away, the ink was burned into the skin. Hayato looked up, "That seal will allow you to summon either of us by swiping a bit of blood across it and focusing chakra. Once the payment of blood and chakra are complete, you place your hands onto the ground focus on which of us you want to summon. While we are not as spry as in our youth, we will teach you. Now go, get back to your village and when you are ready to return here, open the scroll again."

Naruto nodded and picked up the precious summoning scroll. Opening it up, he ran his hand across the different seals on the paper until Hayato nodded. Biting his thumb till it bled, he ran his hand across the seal and waited.

With a familiar sickening jerk, he found himself standing in the dimly lit room again. He looked around at the walls and at the scroll in his hand. Slowly, he raised the sleeve of his jacket and saw the ink on his arm.

'It was real.' He slowly grinned before letting out a whoop of joy and doing a little dance. He had a unique summoning! Finally, something he could beat Sasuke in.

Looking up to the statue, he noticed that Kyuubi was more to the left. While both creatures were writhing furiously, Kyuubi was definitely more to the side of the room with darker depictions. He ran his hand along the wall, the mural of ferocious monsters chilling his blood. He stopped abruptly as he felt a tug from his stomach, more specifically from the seal holding the Kyuubi. He continued walking as he felt the tug grow stronger until he was running along the wall. His arm nearly yanked out of its socket as his hand suddenly stuck to the wall and his body flew forward. He retraced his steps and stared at the place where his hand was stuck.

It wasn't pretty, the sinister visage of a Dokufu stared back at him. Famous in stories for leading unwary travelers to their deaths with the lure they used, they were dangerous to all and lethal to the unwary. Naruto had a sinking sensation as he felt his chakra unwillingly rise up and start to flow through his hand and into the wall. A glowing, intricate pattern emerged as Naruto felt the chakra speed up and his hand started to burn. After what seemed to be an eternity, he was able to yank his hand away from the wall.

The seal billowed smoke as Naruto stumbled back from the shape that suddenly appeared in front of him. The dry rustle of chitin and the clicking of mandibles told him exactly what was inside the smoke. Sure enough, the glistening multi-faceted eyes of the Dokufu stared at him with strange intensity. After a minute of what seemed appraisal, the spider reached out with a pincer and slowly ran the tip over Naruto's face. He shivered at the feel of the cold, hard chitin but was surprised at the gentle touch being used by such a monstrous creature.

The pincer slowly ran over him until, finally, it rested at his navel. The Dokufu chittered and withdrew the pincer quickly as it seemed to try to shrink down and away from Naruto. He realized it must be afraid of him and quickly walked over to it. Slowly reaching a hand out to touch its head he stroked the surprisingly soft bristles on its exoskeleton and tried to reassure it. It relaxed and seemed to lean into his hand before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto quickly walked over to behind the statue and found the lever Hayato spoke of. Pulling it, he watched as a section of the wall to the left slid back and revealed a narrow staircase. Walking up it, he pushed down on the lever that had popped out on the other side. Noting with interest as the other lever lowered as well before the wall slid shut. The lever on his side was hidden much better than its counterpart. It blended in with the wall and looked like a slat of wood.

Walking up the stairs, Naruto made his way through a small number of rooms until he slid a door open and stepped out of a closet. Sliding the door shut behind him, he walked through the abandoned temple before he emerged into the forest.

Tucking his prized scroll into his back pocket, he jumped into the trees and started his journey home. As the trees blurred past him, he felt lighter and happier than he had been in a long time. At long last things were starting to look up.

* * *

As he walked through the streets of Konoha, he was slowly growing more and more nervous. The streets were dark, lit only by the periodic glow of street lights that dotted the street. He made his way to his apartment and walked up the short flight of stairs to his home.

Turning the key in his lock, he walked in and flipped the light switch. The dim glow of the bulb flickered on and he suddenly understood why his gut had been telling him that something bad was happening.

Standing in his living room, looking nothing like the kindly old man Naruto knew, was the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Flanking him was Kakashi, looking none too pleased himself.

Naruto laughed nervously and scratched his head, "Hey old man." The Hokage just continued to stand, smoking his pipe and looking straight into his eyes. His face was stony, the small and periodic puffs of smoke doing nothing to make him seem less scary.

"I'm back." This caused the Hokage to shift, he gestured Naruto forward and the boy trudged forward to sit on his couch. Kakashi walked past him and shut the door. Sarutobi turned to him and the look on his face had not decreased in its frightening intensity.

"Now, Naruto, let's talk about where you've been for the past week."

* * *

AN: This is the first chapter of the rewrite. Enjoy and please stop asking either my account or in reviews any questions that have already been answered.


	2. Chapter 2: Getting to Know You

The Forgotten Summons

"Normal Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_Flashback"_

"**Jutsu/Summon/Demon"**

Chapter 2: Getting to Know You

"And that's what happened." Naruto sat back into the couch and waited for the inevitable response. Sarutobi simply sat in the chair he had commandeered and Kakashi continued to lean against the wall. The elderly Hokage sighed, "So what you're saying is that you spent the missing week in another dimension where you encountered three mythical creatures that offered you their service because of the demon sealed into you. Is that right?"

Naruto quickly nodded and the Hokage sighed, "Naruto, you don't have to lie to me. I'm not mad at you, I'm worried. You say that you fell down a well and had no way to get up and that's fine. Just tell me the truth that you tried to get out for a week and you eventually dug your way out." Naruto pouted slightly, "But I am telling the truth old man! See, I can prove it." He pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and showed the intricate tattoo on his arm. Naruto focused really hard on his chakra and bit his thumb. The Hokage stood up and looked on with rapt attention as Naruto continued to gather his chakra.

Finally, the boy slammed his hands into the floor and a complex seal spread out from under his palms. The Hokage gasped and jumped back next to a now alert Kakashi as a plume of smoke erupted around Naruto. When the smoke cleared, Naruto stood proudly in front of what was obviously a tengu. Naruto beamed at Sarutobi, "See, this is Hayato! I told you I wasn't lying." He crossed his arms in a "so there" expression and waited.

Hayato promptly turned around and bopped Naruto on the head. "Idiot, what do you think you're doing summoning me just for this? You could have accomplished that with anyone else, I do have things to do besides assuage the suspicions of people."

Naruto pouted, "But Hayato, I don't have anyone else from the temples besides Saburo and he's way too tall…and scary…and ugly."

Hayato sighed and turned to face the two ninja. "Greetings, may I ask to whom my wayward summoner has decided to grace my presence with?" The Hokage stepped forward, "I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hokage of the Village Hidden n the Leaves. Is it true that you have accepted Naruto as your summoner?"

Hayato sighed, "Yes, it's not like we had much choice. He has the Kyuubi sealed inside him, and as one of the heavenly pair, we owe our allegiance to her. No matter what form she takes."

Kakashi tensed as the Hokage puffed thoughtfully. "And tell me why I should not seal away Naruto's ability to summon you. Surely a summons with the Kyuubi as the boss cannot be made up of creatures I would want one of my ninja associating with. Especially Naruto."

Hayato nodded as Naruto started to whine in the background, "A reasonable question. And one with a simple and suitable answer. I mentioned that Kyuubi-sama was one of a pair, each of the pair rule over two separate groups of creatures who can be summoned for aid. The Kyuubi grants mastery of the darker aspects of these creatures. Her former general Saburo is an oni and at one time was one of the strongest warriors in the land, myself being his counterpart on the more benevolent side of the clan."

Hayato siged and motioned to the unused couch in the room. Once they were settled he continued, "But with age comes wisdom, or so the saying goes and Saburo has indeed had his eyes cleared of the bloodlust that gripped him in his youth. Just the same, I have lost some of the naiveté that plagued me in my youth. I and my counterpart must prepare Naruto for his coming ordeals. Your Fourth Hokage bestowed much more to Naruto than the power to protect the village when he sealed the Kyuubi within him."

Hayato leaned forward and spoke with grave intent, "Naruto has been set upon the path to restore balance to the order of the world. But he cannot do this with just the Great Kitsune alone. For just as Kyuubi-sama represents the primal aspect of destruction in Nature, so does my leader represent the primal counterforce of creation. The white wolf Shiranui-sama."

Kakashi gasped softly as the Hokage narrowed his eyes, "Shiranui is but a legend. Nobody has seen the white wolf for over a century, if it even exists."

Hayato chuckled, "Oh she exists, and she's much more subtle than Kyuubi. Think on this, the Kyuubi has existed as long as man can remember, but until twelve years ago she could not be stopped. Why wasn't the world destroyed? Simple, because Shiranui-sama moved through the world, always following the Great Kitsune and always repairing the damage to the world. They are also both capable of taking human forms, so humans could have looked right at either of them and not known they were anything but women." Naruto had by this point calmed down and was listening with rapt attention as Hayato continued.

"But somehow, the same power that forced the Kyuubi to attack Konoha has subdued Shiranui-sama. We have had difficulty finding her exact location and we hope that Naruto here will be able to."

The Hokage motioned for the tengu to stop, "You're saying that something forced the Kyuubi to attack Konoha?"

Hayato nodded, "Indeed, and not something, some**one**. We haven't figured out the person's identity but we know one thing about them. They had the Sharingan eye."

Kakashi gasped and looked like he was about to speak before the Hokage silenced him. He took off his hat and slowly massaged his head. Sitting down, he seemed to wilt a bit from the indomitable leader to the weary old man he truly was. "This is a lot to take in at once. I understand what you are saying and I accept it. The summon tattoo, your presence, and my faith in Naruto all lend credence to your story. I have one question though, the fate of Shiranui is unknown but you said you couldn't find her exact location. Does that mean you have a general location?"

Hayato nodded, "We know for sure that she is within the borders of what you call the Land of Rain." Sarutobi sighed, it had to be Rain didn't it. The nation had closed borders and was isolationist to the extreme. He voiced his frustrations to Hayato.

The tengu nodded, "I'm not saying that we send Naruto in now. We'll free her in due time."

Kakashi spoke up, "You seem very relaxed about your boss summon being held captive."

Hayato turned to fix him with a beady eye, "You mistake my rational capacity for being careless. I am no happier about the fate of Shiranui-sama than any of my subordinates. But I am not so foolish as to think we can simply go get her."

Sarutobi sighed, "So what are your plans to help Naruto?"

Hayato shrugged lightly, "Besides train him and offer our services in exchange for seeing the world now and again. Not much. I and Saburo will guide him to the other temples across the land where he can begin unsealing the creatures that will help him free Shiranui-sama. We will never ask him to do anything against Konoha, for the destiny laid upon his shoulders is far greater than any conflict between your villages."

Sarutobi nodded and stood up. "Well then, I have no objections, in fact I think this is a fine opportunity for young Naruto here to get stronger. We'll leave you two alone but Naruto," He fixed the boy with a piercing gaze, "I expect you to fulfill your duties to the village before all else. That means no disappearing without prior consent, and you must show up for all team meetings."

Naruto nodded and waved goodbye at the Hokage as he walked out. Kakashi paused on his way out the door, "Ah yes, we're meeting at the bridge tomorrow, 8:00." He gave a short wave and followed the Hokage out. Naruto shut the door behind them and turned to the tengu.

"So, Hayato, what do we do now?" Hayato fixed the boy with a stare, "First, it's Hayato-sensei during training, and you will call Saburo the same as well. Next, I assume that you haven't slept since I met you?"

Naruto nodded, and Hayato nodded. "Well then, the first order of business is to go get sleep. We'll talk tomorrow. But first I need to tell you about the tattoo on your arm. That will allow you to summon myself and Saburo for barely the amount of chakra you would normally need to summon one of the others. You can still use it to summon the others with it, but because we imprinted it with our chakra, it will work easier for us. Like I said earlier though, Saburo and myself aren't as good as we used to be so try to avoid calling us into combat situations. Now go to bed."

With that, he clapped his talons together and vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto sighed and got ready for bed. Lying down in his bed, he slowly drifted off to sleep. He opened his eyes to find himself in the sewer of his mind. Pausing for a minute, he quickly spun in a circle. Nothing happened.

'Hm, must only happen when she wants to talk to me.' Turning around and starting to walk, he followed the rumbling until he came to the familiar sight of the cage. Walking up, he cautiously peered through the bars. The Kyuubi lay there in all her fearsome glory, the massive head of the kitsune staring back at him. He gave a half-hearted wave.

"**Why have you come here mortal? Do you not fear me?"** Naruto shrugged, "I heard about what happened to make you attack Konoha. You also helped me out with the summons so I guess you can't be all bad." Kyuubi snorted, **"And why are you telling me all of this? Come to rub it in my face that a mere human managed to control me? Save your mockery child."**

Naruto huffed, "No, I just thought you might like someone to talk to. It must get lonely down here." Kyuubi raised her head and stared at him. **"Surely you jest, what could an insect like you possibly offer me in terms of conversation?"** Naruto half-turned, "Fine, if you don't want it."

"**Wait."** The Kyuubi shifted her bulk to rest nearer to the bars with her head staring at Naruto. "**It seems I have nothing better to do and anything to break the boredom is welcome.**" Naruto smiled at her and quickly sat down on the other side of the bars. He quickly started talking about his life, how Sasuke was an arrogant jerk, Sakura was totally going to fall in love with him, Kakashi was the worst teacher ever, and he was totally going to become the greatest Hokage ever.

As he rambled on, he missed the slight change in Kyuubi as her face slowly relaxed for the first time in a decade. **'It really is nice to have some company once in a while, even if it can be incredibly annoying.**'

Naruto woke the next morning. He had spent the entire night talking to Kyuubi and he was surprised to find that he was as refreshed as if he had done nothing but sleep the entire night. He had been surprised to find that Kyuubi was actually nice to talk to. While she had the annoying habit of calling him idiot, mortal, ant, fleshbag, and morsel of food, she could hold a halfway decent conversation and was a very good listener.

She had even begun to teach him a little about speaking properly. Whenever he said something that made him sound retarded, she would correct him, usually with much insulting but it was still nice to know that someone cared about him. Even if she said it was to save her own ears from the horrible method of talking he was prone to use, he knew it was because she cared. And that was something that no amount of insults or derogatory comments about his size could destroy.

Getting up, he quickly pulled his clothes on and got ready for the day. Setting the water to start boiling, he retrieved one of his precious ramen cups and waited. Once the water had **finally** boiled, he poured it over the sweet, sweet noodles and waited again. Grabbing a fork, he picked up the cooking ramen and walked out. Eating on the way to the bridge, he took in the sights of the village.

Making his way onto the small bridge over the quietly flowing stream, he leaned back against the rail and took in the sight of the Hokage monument. Four faces stared out across the village, silent in their vigil over the village they loved. Naruto was interrupted in his thoughts by someone's approach.

Sasuke and Sakura walked up to the bridge, Sasuke silent as usual and Sakura oddly silent as well. That quickly changed however when she saw him, she froze before a grin spread across her face.

"Naruto? Naruto! NARUTO!" She quickly ran up to him and seemed to stop herself when she reached him. Her grin shifted into a frown and she gave him a swift bop on the head, "Where have you been! When we couldn't find you do you have any idea how worried we were? And then you went missing for a week and do you have ANY idea how close you came to being declared a missing-nin?" By the end of her tirade she was almost screaming at him and her visage had shifted into one of vehement wrath.

Naruto quickly held his hands up to stem the flood of righteous female fury, "Now Sakura-chan, there's a perfectly good explanation for everything." She rested back on one foot and gave him a look that said "explain" just as Sasuke walked up. He frowned as Naruto started the long explanation he gave the Hokage.

* * *

An hour went by and Naruto's teammate listened in silence as Naruto explained his extra-dimensional trip and the summon scroll he found. He left out the part about Kyuubi being the leader of half of the creatures and told them it was apparently a scattered summoning contract passed down through his heretofore unknown family and he now had to eventually journey across the land to recover all the lost portions of the contract.

At the end, he stood back and rested his arms from the wild gestures he had been making. It was Sasuke who spoke first. "Bullshit."

Naruto quickly defended himself, "No, it's totally true. You're just super jealous that I get a super special thing and you don't. I'll even prove it to you." Sakura was about to berate him when he lifted his sleeve to reveal an intricate tattoo on his forearm. She watched wide eyed as he bit his thumb and swiped some blood across the seal and become enveloped in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke looked wide eyed as the smoke cleared away to reveal Naruto standing proudly next to a man-sized, bird-headed, armored figure. "No way." He softly whispered. The tengu turned to Naruto at the wide-eyed looks on the children's faces. "Okay, I'm setting a ground rule. No summoning me to prove that you have the contract. Get Saburo to do that, he's usually not doing anything important and he loves scaring people for fun. Bye."

He poofed away and Naruto grumbled before swiping blood on the tattoo again and pushing his hand onto the ground. This time, when the smoke cleared, Sakura gave a short scream as a 7 foot tall oni appeared. Naruto turned to the oni and grinned. "Hey Saburo-sensei, you don't' mind if I summon you randomly do you?" The oni grinned, and reached down to ruffle Naruto's hair in a way that seemed totally out of character for a giant mean ugly oni.

"Nah, I don't mind kid, it's been a while since I got out to stretch my legs. Damn it's good to breathe fresh air again." He looked down at the two genin who were staring at him in shock and guarded fear. "These your teammates kid?" Naruto grinned and walked over to stand by them.

"Yep, this is Sakura-chan and Sasuke." He leaned in and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. "He can be kind of a jerk." Saburo nodded sagely as he looked Sasuke over, "Say no more, seems kinda like Hayato when he gets really pissed."

Sakura finally found her voice, "Naruto, you weren't making it up?" Naruto shook his head, grinning triumphantly. "Nope, told you I was awesome!"

"How did you get this?" Sasuke apparently had found his voice, and it was heavy and reeked of desire. Saburo was the one to speak up, "We accepted him as our summoner because of something unique to him kid. And you might want to stop thinking about summoning us because it isn't gonna happen." Sasuke glared at the oni and stalked off to one end of the bridge. Sakura looked pensively between Sasuke and the amazing being in front of her. Fear seemed to win out eventually and she scampered off to Sasuke.

Saburo looked down at Naruto, "And then there was one. Come on, we can start your training while we wait for your sensei." He grabbed Naruto by the arm and led him off the bridge over to some nearby trees. Naruto got a horrible premonition that this was going to hurt a lot.

* * *

When Kakashi arrived, it was to find Sakura excitedly chatting in a one-sided conversation to a stoic Uchiha genin. Said genin was punching a tree with a look of extreme irritation on his face. Meanwhile, Naruto was furiously dodging a giant oni that was swinging a massive tetsubo at him with frightening speeds.

'Why couldn't I get a normal team?' He sighed at his fate as the sensei of this team. Jumping down from his perch, he landed on the bridged with a wave, "Yo."

For once, there was no one screaming about him being late. Sakura looked over at him before pushing away from her tree and heading over to him, carefully giving Saburo a wide berth and hurrying over to Kakashi.

Sasuke stopped his punching and walked over to the bridge, his eyes seemingly glued to the oni as he walked by. His expression of annoyance had changed into one that screamed resent. Naruto and the oni stopped trying to beat the shit out of each other and joined them. Sasuke looked over at them and snorted, Naruto looked at him. "What's the matter Sasuke?" Sasuke looked away and crossed his arms, "Nothing, just wondering why you even bother with that stupid summon. It's big, dumb, and slow."

Saburo leaned down to whisper something in Naruto's ear. Kakashi sighed as his trained ears picked up the derogatory comments passing into his students ear and was glad Sasuke couldn't hear them. Naruto sniggered at a particularly good comment as Saburo chuckled and held out a hand to Naruto who immediately slapped the hand in a high five. Saburo vanished back to his realm.

Kakashi looked over at Naruto, "Please try to control your summons Naruto. We really don't need any more problems in the team." Naruto shrugged, "I'll try Kakashi-sensei, but frankly, I have no desire to get squished by a club."

"Anyway, I'm here to inform you all that given Naruto's recent mishap, no matter how fortunate it proved to turn out, you teamwork on the Tora mission was sorely lacking. So, for the next two weeks, you three are going to be doing exercises together. If, and I mean **if**, you all pass, I'll get us a C-rank."

Naruto was as usual, the voice of the group, "All right Kakashi-sensei! We'll do it no matter what!" Sasuke, for once looked excited and a little pleased. Sakura was still looking apprehensive but a glimmer of excitement was in her eyes as well.

'Maybe this won't be so bad after all.' Kakashi thought hopefully as he led them off to the training ground.

* * *

The two weeks went by without a hitch, the promise of a C-rank mission had motivated his team in ways that he couldn't have imagined. Their individual skills also improved as he taught them the tree-walking exercise to improve their chakra control. Naruto actually proved to be the most beneficial to the team. He constantly summoned the oni Saburo, and the tengu Hayato. All of whom were happy to help out their summoner and his friends. Kakashi was all too glad for the help, he had limited experience with teaching and generally only called his students away from their exercises for team training and meetings.

Sasuke had finally swallowed some of his pride and had accepted that he wasn't going to get the summon contract anytime soon. He had asked Naruto if the boy would summon someone to help him with his training. Naruto had surprisingly passed up the opportunity to rub his victory in the other boys face and showed surprising maturity in his acceptance. Saburo had grinned all too nastily when he heard that he got another target for their training. He set them on basic taijustu drills and worked on increasing their stamina and strength by punching logs, push-ups, jogs, and his favorite, avoiding his club.

Hayato had stepped in after a week and decided to show the boys how to wield a sword. He explained that while Naruto was his summoner there was no better way to improve oneself than by practicing against an equal. They were started out on basic kendo and the proper way to handle a sword. Once they had learned the basic stances they started practicing the ways to cut someone. The sword drills were ruthless, and they quickly became glad for the intense physical training Saburo had put them through. Without the added muscle and stamina, they would have collapsed shortly into the rigorous chopping, slashing, and sparring. Hayato explained after much protest from Naruto that they would be allowed to pick their own preferred styles once they mastered the use of a single sword.

Naruto even got a change in his wardrobe, Sakura had finally stepped in with the blessing and even encouragement of Kakashi and Hayato to get Naruto a proper shinobi outfit. Accompanied by the jounin, they had no trouble convincing a storekeeper to sell them clothes at a reasonable price.

They got him some functional clothes consisting of a black sleeveless zippered turtleneck, a dark blue long-sleeved jacket , a pair of long tan shorts that hung past his knees and a chest band with a sheath for any large weapons on his back. He kept his headband where it was and all-in-all when he looked in the mirror, he admitted that he looked much better.

* * *

Finally, the day came and Kakashi stood in front of them, they had grown beyond his expectations in the past two weeks and he was suitably impressed.

"All right Team 7, the day has come, I promised you a mission and you've earned it. I had a beauty of an escort mission to Wave lined up but unfortunately, the client was impatient. He went off with Team 10 under Sarutobi Asuma. So, we're going to go see what's available." The three genin nodded and fell in behind him as he started walking.

When they arrived at the mission room in the Hokage tower, Sarutobi greeted them with a serious gaze. "What is it Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked. Sarutobi removed his pipe and laid it on the table in front of him. "I have a very serious problem for you. We recently received a message from Team 10 requesting backup. The client lied about the mission level and they encountered the Demon brothers of the Mist. Because this is officially a C-rank mission, I can't send out a team of Chunin as I would like to. Instead, I would like to send your team."

Kakashi turned around and gave the genin a questioning look. They looked between themselves and quickly nodded. He turned back, "We accept Hokage-sama." Sarutobi raised his eyebrow, "Are you sure? They are rookies after all, I could send Gai's team instead." Kakashi nearly shouted, "No! I mean, that won't be necessary Hokage-sama. I have the utmost faith in my team."

Outside the office, Kakashi turned to the genin, "Alright, meet me in one hour by the gates, pack light but keep the essentials. We need to move fast and be ready to fight if we have to at the end of the journey." He lad them outside an jumped off. Naruto turned to Sasuke, "This is exciting huh? Our first C-rank mission and we already get to rescue someone." Sakura nodded, "It is pretty exciting isn't it. I can't wait to show Ino how much I've improved." Naruto turned to Sasuke, "You cool with this?" Sasuke smirked, "Of course, just don't get in my way."

Naruto nodded and sped off to his apartment, he opened the door to find Saburo lounging around in one of his chairs while Hayato sat at his table, sipping tea. "Guess what guys? I got my first C-rank mission!" Saburo looked up from where he was watching TV, "A C-rank huh? That's great kid, you're moving up in the world. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." He then promptly focused back on the soap opera he was watching, muttering to himself. "Don't leave him Junko, he's just lying about the paternity test."

Hayato motioned Naruto over, "Naruto my boy, come here. There's something I want to tell you." Naruto walked over, "What is it Hayato-sensei?" He reached out and clasped Naruto's shoulder with his talons. "When you're out there, I want you to keep a weather eye out for something." He pulled out a rolled up map and unfurled it on the table.

"Where exactly is your mission?" Naruto quickly pointed out the country. "Right here, the Land of Waves." Hayato nodded in enthusiasm, "Perfect, I was doubtful that we could do this so early, but I need you to listen closely. This country contains the temple of one of the other summon pairs. It is the resting place and you are the rightful summoner to at least half of them, but after so much time I fear they may have gone feral. It will take every ounce of your strength to subdue one."

"But if I have a right to this why would they attack me?" Hayato looked up from the map, "As I said, some of them may have gone feral and may not recognize you. What will be more likely as you are limited to the more destructive aspects of our realm due to the presence of only the Kyuubi, is that they may not wish to submit to anyone after not being forced to serve anyone for so long. Be careful going in though, the summons will not be the only challenge in the temples. The temples unique spiritual presence will doubtless draw the attention of lesser beings of the spiritual realm. They will not react kindly to your presence. Be cautious, while these creatures will no doubt be weak, they are still vicious and cunning. Do not lower your guard against them for an instant." Naruto nodded, the serious tone of Hayato's voice making him shiver a bit.

"Sensei, why didn't I encounter any at the temple outside Konoha?" Hayato leaned back a bit and idly stroked his chin in thought.

"Good question, and one that deserves more attention than I can give at this time. My only theory at this point is that perhaps the high amount of chakra exuded almost constantly by the Konoha ninja seems to drive them off. As they are spiritual beings, it's likely that the mix of physical and spiritual energy given off by a ninja is at the very least irritating to them. The large amounts exuded by the village would be almost maddening. If this is the case, then you should be careful with your jutsu, unless it is powerful enough to destroy them outright it will make them madder and madder until they likely go berserk. Best to stick with melee and hope for the best."

"Then why doesn't chakra irritate you as well?" Hayato smiled gently in pride at Naruto asking questions and using his brain.

"Probably because when you summon someone here, your blood acts as a conduit between your chakra from this world and our energy from the spirit world to give us a physical body." The answer seemed to make Naruto freeze up and shiver alightly as he seemed to force out the next words.

"Are you saying that you normally don't have physical bodies?" At Hayato's nod he let out a slight croak of fear, "So without the blood these spirits won't have bodies?"

Hayato pondered this for a moment before nodding decisively, "If my theory is correct then yes. Your blood is the only factor that differs from their situation and ours." Hayato seemed to finally notice Naruto's rapidly degenerating state. "What's wrong Naruto?"

Naruto rocked back and forth while gripping his arms, his face twisted into an almost comical expression of pitiable fear, "I don't like ghosts." His words were almost a whine at that point.

Hayato chuckled softly, "No need to worry Naruto. The presence of Kyuubi has strengthened your connection to the spiritual realm. While most people would only feel a slight chill or get a feeling of wrongness from an area. A ninja would occasionally get a glimpse of a figure after focusing their chakra for a bit. Kyuubi's constant suffusion of your body with her chakra after you made contact with her will allow you to see most spirits. If you focus your chakra, you should easily be able to interact with any spirits you encounter. This will allow you to combat any angry spirits you encounter, understand?"

At Naruto's nod Hayato continued, "Good, now the shrine where the scroll rests is here." He drew an X on the map. "You'll need to find the path down to where the chamber is kept and then you'll need to commune with the summon living there. You remember the statue of Kyuubi and Shiranui?" Naruto nodded, "Good, each resting place has a statue like that. Simply placing your hand on the respective portrait of the summon you want should allow you to talk to them. Remember to only attempt to contact the Kyuubi side, the other one will reject you, violently." He rolled up the map and handed it to Naruto. "Good luck."

Naruto folded the map up and put it in his hip pouch. "Hey Hayato-sensei, what are the summons for this place?" Hayato leaned back to sit against the table, "They were creatures that lived in and around the islands that circle the Land of Water where the Mist Village is now. I don't remember much about them, but it will be obvious what they are when you see them. They will almost certainly be dangerous, so watch out."

Naruto nodded and stepped forward, he gave Hayato a quick hug. The tengu froze, his arms lifting above Naruto before relaxing and returning the embrace. Naruto pulled away and smiled up at him before running off to gather supplies. Hayato became distinctly uncomfortable as Saburo gave him a knowing look. "Getting fond of him much?" Hayato snorted and looked away, crossing his arms. Saburo chuckled, "Don't worry, your secrets safe with me, besides, maybe it's all the years hanging around you, but I've grown fond of the kid myself."

* * *

It was a panting Naruto that arrived at the gate, he paused as he caught his breath. Kakashi looked down at him, "It's alright, take a moment." Naruto finally caught his breath and looked up at the team. "So, we ready?" Sasuke grunted and turned away, Sakura smiled and nodded. "Alright, let's do this!"

It was three hours later as they were jumping through the trees at full speed, that Kakashi signaled them to halt. They landed on the same branch and turned to him. "Right, we're almost out of Fire country now, and I want you to remember that we need to be on alert for Team 10, they could be in trouble. Now, if we meet a jounin, leave him to me. I want you three to run interference, hold off any allies, and secure Team 10's safety. Alright?"

They nodded, and sped off. When they reached the shore of the sea, Kakashi nodded at them and they put their recent water-walking training to use. Halfway across, Sakura was running low on chakra and Naruto created a shadow clone to carry her the rest of the way. When they hit the opposite shore, Sakura and Sasuke took a soldier pill that Kakashi handed them. "Eat, it'll help you replenish your chakra for now. I need you at your best. There's something ahead." They nodded and bit down, surges of chakra flowing through them.

When they came up on a clearing, they saw a heavy mist coating the area. Sounds of battle rang out inside the mist and Kakashi nodded atTeam 7. They jumped up into the treeline surrounding the clearing and Kakashi looked down at them, "Right, I want you three to pull out Team 10 while I engage the enemy with Asuma. Do not engage anyone unless I signal you. After you pull them out set up a perimeter around the clearing. Ready?"

They nodded and Kakashi ran through hand-seals before sucking in a deep breath.

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa no jutsu."**

The blast of air was enough to clear the thick mist without staggering anyone within and Kakashi was quick on the heels of the dissipating mist. The forms of two adults locked in combat were revealed as well as three genin surrounding an old man that was probably Tazuna.**  
**

The rest of Team 7 leaped off the branch, high into the air, above the jutsu Kakashi aimed at the ground. They angled their fall to land around Team 10 and they quickly surrounded Tazuna while helping the other genin into cover.

Once in the treeline, Naruto turned to Shikamaru who was clutching his side which was dripping blood. "Hey Shikamaru, you okay?" The lazy boy snapped out of his stupor and looked at Naruto, "Naruto? What are you doing here?" Naruto grinned quickly at him, "We're your reinforcements. Kakashi is fighting with Asuma now, but we need to get you guys out of here okay?" Shikamaru nodded and winced in obvious pain as he applied more pressure to stop the bleeding. "Hit Tazuna and Ino with a Shadow Bind to drag them to the floor when a sword was chucked at us. I got them down in time but was a little slow myself."

Naruto nodded as he turned to Sakura, "I need to treat Shikamaru while Sasuke and I move off into the treeline to support Kakashi-sensei."

She was obviously unhappy with treating such a nasty looking wound but the urgency in Naruto's voice seemed to spur her into action. "Right, I'll stay here. You go give that guy a beating Naruto."

Naruto grinned before giving her a thumbs up, "It's a promise." Without another word, he and Sasuke jumped away.

Sakura quickly turned to Shikamaru while pulling her small medkit out. "I don't have time to stitch it closed so I'll only be able to disinfect it and wrap it tightly to help stop the bleeding. Try not to move." She quickly tied her hair back out of the way and got to work.

* * *

Kakashi didn't even need to speak with Asuma as he joined the fight. The bearded jounin smoothly shifted his fighting style to accommodate the copy-nin. They flowed between each other seamlessly until the jounin, now identified by Asuma in between strikes as Momochi Zabuza, was trapped between a water wall and a hard place.

Naruto's head whipped around from where he had been watching the fight as three senbon flashed out of the trees to hit Zabuza in the neck. He slumped over, motionless. Kakashi leaned down and checked his pulse, "He's dead.

The verdict was followed by a masked ninja jumping down to land on nearby. "Thank you, I've been tracking him for the past three days. I'll dispose of the body, it contains many secrets." He stooped down near the body as the genin came out. Kakashi, who was closest to the corpse, sighed and walked away as the grisly scene started to play itself out.

Asuma spoke up from where he had forced Zabuza onto the water, "Aren't you breaking procedure?" Kakashi snapped his head around and gave the signal as the hunter-nin cursed. Naruto launched himself out of the tree as a fireball sped out of the opposite treeline, Sasuke's position too far away to run in time. Naruto altered his course in mid-air by kicking off the trunk of his tree as the hunter-nin jumped away from the fireball. His hand flashed out and a kunai sailed towards the hunter-nin. The nin cursed as the kunai sunk into the soft flesh of his/her shoulder. Quickly forming a seal a sheet of ice formed in the air in front of the mysterious nin. Quickly diving into the ice still holding the body and disappearing, the ice quickly shattered as Naruto crashed into it.

Kakashi cursed and walked over, Asuma following. "What's wrong Kakashi-sensei, wasn't he taking care of the corpse?" Kakashi sighed, "No, you're too young to have ever been in ANBU so it's not a big surprise. I'm shocked that Asumahere knew that something was wrong, though he was one of the Twelve Guardians of Fire, so maybe I shouldn't be. Anyway, hunter-nin are supposed to destroy the body on the spot, they only need the head as proof. Plus, senbon are an unusual weapon to use for assassination. Though they can be used to hit nerve clusters that can seize up the body into a death-like state. So it's a good chance that hunter-nin was an ally of Zabuza's. Let's go back and retrieve the others."

Asuma cursed and ran quickly to the others. Kakashi looked after him, "What's wrong?"

Naruto looked worriedly after Asuma as he walked up to Kakashi, "Shikamaru was hit bad in the side, Sakura's tending to him."

Kakashi looked down at him in surprise before looking off at where Sakura's bright hair could now be seen. "Sakura huh? Well well, looks like she's full of surprises."

Sasuke jogged up to them as they approached. Sakura was talking to Asuma who looked much more relieved. She looked up at the rest of Team 7, "Ah, just in time. As I told Asuma, Shikamaru here needs to be moved somewhere where I can stitch his wound closed. He's lost a lot of blood but the pill Asuma gave him should help. If you'd be so kind Kakashi-sensei." She stood up and motioned him forward to the opposite end of a collapsible stretcher she had pulled out of her pack. Kakashi moved forward until he was opposite Asuma, his eyebrow raised at the official tone in Sakura's voice. Asuma just shrugged and lifted Shikamaru with Kakashi as Tazuna led the way to his daughters house.

As the rest of the genin fell in behind them, Naruto leaned over to whisper to Sasuke as Sakura talked excitedly with Ino. "Where do you reckon she learned to do that?"

Sasuke gave his usual response of a noncommittal grunt before seeming to force out his next words, "I guess book smarts are sometimes useful."

Naruto grinned at him, "Yeah, I guess you're right there. Still, it was pretty impressive how she acted back there. Shikamru was pretty torn up back there, she might have saved his life. Worth thinking about anyway." He quickly jogged up to chat with Chouji.

Sasuke looked from his retreatig back to Sakura, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Yeah, you might be right."

* * *

AN: Chapter 2 is done being rewritten.


	3. Chapter 3: The Crisis in Wave

The Forgotten Summons

"Normal Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_Flashback"_

"**Jutsu/Summon/Demon"**

Chapter 3: The Crisis in Wave

Haku laid down the body of her mentor, her body aching as she quickly yanked out the kunai embedded in her shoulder. It slid out easily, the blade thankfully not being barbed or hooked to cause extra damage when removed. She quickly tore off a strip of cloth from her yukata and tied a hasty bandage around the wound. It wouldn't hold for long but it would hold long enough for her to revive her master. Haku shook her herself out of her thoughts and turned back to the task at hand. She had to work quickly before his brain started to take permanent damage from the lack of oxygen in his blood.

Reaching down, she plucked the senbon out of his neck with the precision and speed born of long experience. Reaching into her hip pouch, she withdrew a pair of shears that she used to clip away the bandages around Zabuza's neck. Peeling them away from the dried blood that had caked around his mouth from his near-death experience, she swiftly popped a blood replenishing pill in his mouth and forced it down his throat past his gag reflex. Sighing slightly in relief as she put her fingers to his throat and felt his pulse slowly return, she rolled him over as color slowly returned to his skin. Pulling out a hooked needle, she began the grisly process of stitching his open wounds closed.

"Uh, that stings something nasty. Go easier Haku." Haku nodded as Zabuza looked over his shoulder. "My apologies Zabuza-sama, I assumed you were still unconscious and tried to do it quickly. I will go slower now." The demon of Kiri fell silent as his companion continued her butcher's work.

"Haku, did you by any chance get a good look at the people who arrived to help?" Haku nodded, she had seen much of the genin team that had accompanied Kakashi.

"Indeed, Sharingan Kakashi was accompanied by three genin, most likely his students if I were to hazard a guess. They were quite efficient in removing the others from the battle. One of them managed to hit me as I made my escape" She fell silent at the thought of the genin who had thrown the kunai at her.

Zabuza groaned as Haku paused in her work, the needle still in him. "Haku…"

She started and quickly finished up the last of the stitches. "My apologies Zabuza-sama, I forgot myself. I was thinking about the one who attacked me, he came out of the trees after the bearded jounin blew my cover." Haku fell silent as she continued until Zabuza spoke, "Haku?"

"I was careless to expect none of them to not know the standard procedure for hunter-nin disposal, especially with Kakashi ther. I apologize for my incompetence Zabuza-sama."

Zabuza fell silent at this apology, his mind running through all the potential scenarios that could result from the enemy knowing they were still active before settling on the one most likely. Before he voiced his thoughts however, he decided to see what Haku thought. "What do you think will happen now Haku?"

She bit her lip, her nervous expression hidden by the hunter mask she wore. "I believe that after the altercation I was able to move you sufficiently far away from them to deter any pursuit. Also, the genin who you wounded in the start lost a lot of blood. Due to the Konoha nature of never leaving comrades behind, they most likely gave up pursuit in order to gurantee his survival." Zabuza was silent for a time after this. He rolled over onto his back when Haku was finished and fixed his gaze on her.

"I concur, their weakness will be their undoing" Zabuza grunted and shakily stood up, Haku moved to his side and helped him along as they made their way back to the hideout. Zabuza spoke up about halfway, "The appearance of the second jounin and his team is troubling. I might have to ask Gato to hire some additional help, and I have a good idea of who to call." He chuckled ominously and Haku felt a surge of pity well within her for the Konoha ninja. This would not be pretty.

* * *

Once they had arrived at Tazuna's home and Shikamaru had gotten patched up, Team 10 and Team 7 had convened around the dinner table, along with the elderly bridge-builder Tazuna, and his daughter Tsunami. Kakashi and Asuma soon walked in from where they had been having a hushed conversation outside. Asuma clapped his hands together in fake anticipation, an obvious attempt to detract the genin's attention from the seriousness of the situation. "All right kiddies, since we've determined that Zabuza will take a little while to recover, we are going to get started on your training."

While Asuma led his team out the door, Kakashi turned to the three of them. "Don't think you guys are getting off from training just because you performed so well, We're going to be stepping up your training so you can be ready for that accomplice of Zabuza. That means heavy speed, strength and, chakra training for all of you. Naruto, I'll need you to help out with the usual trainers."

Naruto grimaced, "Hey Kakashi-sensei, why don't you ever seem to train us? You are our sensei, but you've been having other people take over for quite a while now." The jounin sighed and motioned them to get comfortable.

"You all know that I'm a powerful jounin right?" They all nodded in unison and Kakashi continued. "Well, circumstances conspired to have me become a jounin at about your age. Promotions happened faster and with less scrutiny during the war. Even then, I was one of the youngest jounin ever. On my first mission as a jounin…" He trailed off and seemed to be lost in thought.

"What is it sensei?" Sakura had been the first to speak up. Kakashi seemed to snap out of his thoughts at her voice, his eye crinkled into what was probably his best approximation of a smile with a covered mouth.

"Sorry, as I was saying. Something happened on that mission and I later ended up joining the ANBU corps because of it. I only came out of it a few years back and you guys happen to be the first team I've taken on. So I'm still a little new to the whole teaching thing."

He pushed the door open and beckoned the three genin outside,his face crinkled in his approximation of a smile all the way. "Well then, let's get to training shall we?"

* * *

Once they reached a clearing in the forest, Kakashi turned around and gave Naruto a nod. "Just the two for you and Sasuke, I'll be helping Sakura." Naruto nodded and began the process of summoning Hayato and Saburo.

Kakashi turned to Sakura as the two summons appeared in the clearing. "Now Sakura, I need to tell you something. In terms of combat abilities, kunoichi generally don't do ninjutsu. Because of their smaller reserves, almost all kunoichi find a different combat method and use ninjutsu as a backup. Some use weapons, genjutsu, or medic abilities, the last two in particular as they are more suited for the greater control kunoichi have."

Sakura seemed to visible deflate at his statement, the knowledge that she would never be as powerful as the two male members of her team was extremely disheartening. She looked up from where she had been staring at her feet as Kakashi clapped a hand on her shoulder.

"Just because it isn't as easy for kunoichi doesn't mean you can't do it. If you want, I'll help you start work on your reserves. It won't be easy, but it will mean that you'll be able to surprise an opponent. Ninja don't usually assume that kunoichi are heavy hitters, it's probably sexist, but that can work to your advantage."

Sakura looked over at Sasuke and Naruto, Sasuke was going through sword stances with Hayato, Naruto was busy beating the crap out of the surrounding trees as Saburo looked on with arms crossed. She looked back at Kakashi and clenched a fist, "I'll do it! Please teach me Kakashi-sensei, I don't want to be left behind anymore."

Kakashi looked appraisingly at her, he almost threw up at the thought, but he now understood, even a little bit, what his colleague Gai meant by the 'flames of youth.'

"Alright then, let's get started."

* * *

A few days had gone by and Naruto was exhausted, his knuckles had been scraped raw, his muscles had periodically given out on massive runs through the forest, and his legs felt like jelly every time he went to bed. But he could already feel the massive improvements in his body. Saburo was a harsh but effective taskmaster, his training methods focused on pushing the limits of the body. The large oni said it was essential to be in peak physical condition to make full use of the fighting style he was going to teach him.

On the fourth day of training Naruto had jogged up to where Saburo was already waiting for him. "What is it today sensei? More 10-mile runs? Or am I going to punch and kick a tree again for hours on end?" Naruto was truly grateful for the attention and training he was receiving, but it didn't change the fact that the training was painful. So it really wasn't his fault that his words dripped sarcastic resentment.

The oni grunted, "Watch the tone kid, and no. I figure what with the exercises you were doing back in Konoha and the intense training we've been doing since we got here, you should be ready to learn the basic fighting moves. Make about 10 of those oh so useful clones for me would you."

The oni looked on as Naruto crossed his fingers and called out "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Once 10 clones stood in the clearing, Saburo nodded and pushed off of the tree trunk he had been leaning on. "Right, first off, I'm not going to teach you a style with formal katas. Something like that would be better for your friend over there." He motioned over to where Sasuke was panting with exertion with his sword in his hands. Hayato faced him with his katana gripped in his own talons.

Naruto turned back to face Saburo. "Understand kid? From what I've seen, you prefer to fight a little more freestyle right? More of a street brawler eh?" Naruto nodded, "Yep, I'm Konoha's number one most surprising ninja!" Saburo chuckled darkly, "Well, this fighting style is right up your alley. What I've seen of how you fight is that you like to use shadow clones to set up your opponents and then hit them with massively powerful hit. This style will allow you to hurt them where it hurts most and allow you to get them in holds, break out of any locks you might get into, and eventually kill people ridiculously easy."

Naruto stared up at him, his wriggling form barely containing his excitement. "What is this called sensei?" Saburo smiked in a supremely satisfied way, "Heh, this ancient and most noble of fighting styles is called….WRESTLING!"

Naruto looked up at his sensei, the oni's fist was clenched and held in front of his face, tears streaming down his face and eyes clenched shut as he trembled at his declaration.

"Huh?"

Saburo let out a shriek, a very manly and masculine shriek and started ranting about how could Naruto not know about the most noble and ancient art of wrestling. Once he had calmed down enough to form coherent sentences, he motioned for Naruto to stand back.

Naruto watched amazed as Saburo took down his clones one by one with a variety of amazingly simple but brutally effective moves. The first clone was hit by a running Saburo who jumped into the air legs first. The oni wrapped his legs around the clones neck, and leaned backwards in the air, flipping the clone 270 degrees to slam into the ground, the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. Saburo shot to his feet and charged the next clone in a flash, he hooked his arm out to the side and caught the clone in the neck, throwing him into another clone. They both disappeared before the clones realized what was happening and started to move into action.

One of them ran straight at Saburo from the front, his fist cocked back and ready to deliver clone justice. The oni casually stepped to the side and shot an arm out at the last second, catching the clone before it could halt its charge. It hit the arm with its head and its head shot back as its feet flew forward before spinning around mid-air to land face first in the dirt before dispelling.

He then proceeded to demolish the clones, one with a leg sweep and a falling elbow drop to the head, another with a vicious spinning backhand that left the clones head backwards before it dispelled. One charged him from the back only for him to grasp his left arm with his right and drive his left elbow straight back into the clone.

He flickered behind one and grasped his hands together before driving his clenched fists into the clones back between his shoulder blades. Another clone got his legs swept out from under him before the oni jumped into the air and drove both knees into the clones gut. He slowly stood up from the rapidly dispersing smoke cloud and faced the last clone.

Naruto almost felt sorry for the last clone as Saburo disappeared again to reappear behind the clone. He reached forward and wrapped his arms around the clone in a tight hug. He then lifted the clone and leaned backwards driving the clone down head-first as he arched his body in a u-shape. The clone was driven into the ground, its head stuck in the ground as its body sagged to the ground. Naruto winced at the sight of his body with its neck clearly snapped.

Saburo walked towards Naruto with the puff of smoke from the last clone dispersing behind him. The genin was speechless at what he had seen. He closed his eyes and dropped his head, his hand curling into a fist at his side. Saburo looked down worriedly as the boy started to shake. "Hey kid, you alright?"

Naruto raised his head and a grin broke out onto his face, "That was AWESOME! Please teach me Saburo-sensei! Please!"

Saburo grinned at the boys enthusiasm, "Well alright then, let's get started."

* * *

"Right, first things first. How was your training?

It was the end of the week and Kakashi had gathered Team 7 together for a team meeting.

Sasuke was the first to speak up, "It was good. I'm getting better with sword and my speed has improved a lot." For once, he actually looked pleased. Naruto figured that a little bit of intense training went a long way to improving his mood.

Kakashi nodded and looked over at Naruto. The blond boy grinned before giving his sensei a thumbs up. "Saburo-sensei is teaching me an awesome fighting style! I also have to keep working really hard on my strength and speed to use the moves effectively. But I'm confident that with shadow clones I can bypass that until I get better."

Kakashi nodded and looked down at Sakura by his side, the girl had apparently gone through a few changes. For one thing, she wasn't wearing any makeup, her fists and knees were littered with scratches and scuff marks. But perhaps the most dramatic change was her hair. Gone was the free-flowing locks that almost begged enemy Shinobi to grab them. Instead, she had pulled her hair up into a twisted bun behind her head. It looked well secured if a little messy, and Sakura gave them both a smile before holding her hands up in a victory sign.

"I've been working Sakura here into the ground with physical drills, Taijutsu sparring, and Ninjutsu practice. To be honest, she really needed the practice to start catching up. While she's not quite up to your guys' level yet, I think she can be called Genin level now."

Naruto grinned widely and gave her a thumbs up. Kakashi shivered as his student unknowingly replicated the famed 'Nice Guy' pose his self-proclaimed eternal rival was feared for using. "You look really good Sakura-chan! Don't you think so too Sasuke?" The Uchiha huffed, "Well at least you don't look like you'll be as much dead-weight anymore." Sakura smiled nervously to hide her disappointment, "Y-you think so?"

Kakashi looked off to the side as the kids did their whole bonding thing to look at Asuma leading his team into the clearing. "Ah Asuma-san, you're done as well?" The bearded jounin nodded and clapped a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder.

"Yep, this one in particular is getting better. His sides better now thanks to your kunoichi. She's got a real talent there, don't let it go to waste." Kakashi nodded and turned back to his team of genin. A sweatdrop rolled slowly down his brow as he looked at them. Sakura was busy slamming her fists against Naruto's back in an effort to get him to release Sasuke. The blond haired genin had his teeth clenched on Sasuke's leg and was growling his displeasure as he fended off the Uchiha's hands that were furiously trying to whack him off while a stream of obscenities flew from his mouth.

Kakashi reached up to massage the bridge of his nose as he attempted to stave off the migraine that was threatening to come on. "Come on you guys, knock it off." Reaching down, he smacked Naruto in the back of the neck, causing the boy to momentarily release Sasuke. Kakashi quickly picked the boy up by his grey jacket and plopped him down away from Sasuke.

"Shut up you three and open your ears wide. What I'm about to say is important." Naruto sat down with his legs crossed and paid attention, but not before giving Sasuke a dirty look. Sasuke and Sakura sat down as well. Kakashi motioned for Asuma to bring his genin over as well.

Once they were all gathered, Kakashi cleared his throat. "Now, you've all been told about how Zabuza is probably still alive right?" He waited until they all nodded their heads. "Well, the particular method used by the fake hunter-nin has some serious drawbacks. One is a loss of strength for about a week afterwards." Sakura spoke up, "But that means,"

Shikamaru finished her sentence, "Yeah, that means Zabuza will be up and after us any day now."

Asuma nodded grimly, "Which means that we'll now be traveling in groups. That means we travel in our respective teams. One team will stay here to guard the home of Tazuna, the other team will go to the bridge with Tazuna. We'll keep the teams the same every day so you get familiar with the layout of the area you're guarding. I volunteer to defend the house since my team is better suited for entrapment. Kakashi's team will be going to the bridge every day. If anyone encounters one of the missing nin, use the signal tags we're giving you."

Kakashi handed out small slips of paper to each of the genin. "Just channel your chakra into them and slap them on any surface. Once you do that. Head back to the house. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, try to engage them. You are to flee on sight."

The genin nodded and stored the slips of paper in their hip pouches. Kakashi clapped his hands together, "Alright then, enough of the depressing stuff. Let's head back to the house for dinner." The genin picked themselves back up and followed their sensei's back to the house.

Ino and Sakura were talking together about Sakura's new look. Shikamaru and Chouji seemed to be content just walking together. Naruto jogged lightly up to Sasuke, he looked over at the blond genin and gave him a smirk. "You ready for this? Not going to chicken out when it happens are you?"

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms, "As if, you're probably going to be the one who freezes up and I'll have to drag you out of the battle." Sasuke grinned, "Funny, I was about to suggest the same thing for you." Naruto grinned back and gave a small chuckle.

* * *

At the safe-house provided by Gato, Zabuza pulled himself up from where he had been recovering for the past week. He stretched his arms out and began working out the cramps and kinks from his bones. Swinging his legs out, he stood up from the bed and began walking unsteadily. He quickly got his footing and was lightly exercising when Haku walked in.

"Zabuza-sama, the reinforcements Gato hired are here." He looked up at his apprentice and Haku could make out the grin forming behind his bandages. "Excellent timing, I was worried that I wouldn't be recovered by the time he got here. No offense, but I don't think you could have defended me from him."

"Well, well, it looks like I missed watching little Zabuza-chan get the stuffing beat out of him."

The harsh voice spoke up from the doorway behind Haku. Zabuza glared at him, "I can't say it's good to see you, given how we last parted. But I'll make an effort to put that aside until the job is done. How about you?"

The cloaked figure slowly inclined his head. "For what this Gato is paying me, I think I can hold off on killing you for a while. It'll be just like old times." The figure turned around and walked out the door. His voice drifted back over his shoulder, "I'll be back tomorrow for the planning."

Zabuza waited till a few minutes after the man had gone. "I hate that guy so much."

Haku tilted his head slightly. "Huh, but aren't you both from the Seven Swordsman of the Mist?" Zabuza chuckled darkly as he walked over and hefted his Kubiriki Houcho.

"Exactly."

-Author's Notes-

AN: Chapter three is done being rewritten. Once again, you don't like then don't read.


	4. Chapter 4: A Bridge Too Far

The Forgotten Summons

"Normal Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_Flashback"_

"**Jutsu/Summon/Demon"**

Chapter 4: A Bridge Too Far

It was late in the morning when Team 7 left to accompany Tazuna to the bridge. A light mist from the sea still lingered in the forest they walked through to get to the bridge. It wasn't very thick, but it was still enough to put them all on edge given the reputation of their foe.

The dry snapping of twigs, the crunch of pine needles underfoot, all served to increase the tension that seemed to permeate the air. Sakura was snapping her head around at almost every noise, her breathing getting heavier and more ragged as the thick silence went on.

She stiffened and then relaxed as Naruto laid a hand on her shoulder. Her head whipping around to see Naruto smiling softly at her. "Don't worry so much, we'll get through this just fine." She gave him a quick nod and seemed to calm down a bit. They continued their trek through the outskirts of town and finally arrived at the bridge.

Kakashi swore at the scene that greeted them. The ground was littered with the bodies of the construction workers. Most of them seemed to have escaped serious damage but the ones who had obviously run away were in a grisly state of dismemberment. Kakashi slapped one of the seal flares against the ground.

"All of you, take Tazuna and run! Get him back to the house and tell Asuma what's happening. But be careful, the hunter-nin is probably going to attack the house."

Naruto was the one who voiced their thoughts, "We don't want to leave you sensei!"

Kakashi smiled to himself at the determination in Naruto's voice. "No choice Naruto, there's not much you can do against Zabuza. If you want to help me, help finish off the hunter-nin and get Asuma here. Now go, that's an order!"

He reached behind him and gave Naruto a little shove. The blond genin stumbled away and raced to join up with the rest of his team at the end of the bridge. Kakashi gave his retreating form a glance before turning back to scanning the mist for his enemy.

"It's over Zabuza! In a few minutes my genin will lead Asuma here and we'll both finish you off. Just give up now and I'll let you live."

The heavy mist rolled forward to envelop Kakashi, the deep baritone of Zabuza's chuckle reverberated through the air. The water in the air muting it and making it impossible to pinpoint the voice.

"Such a fool you are, Sharingan Kakashi. For all your legend you miss the obvious so easily. Did you think I would not see your plans? I knew you would split your forces, so, I had Gato hire some extra help."

Kakashi's eyes widened as he whirled around to race off to his genin. The blade of Zabuza's massive zanbato appeared in front of his neck. Kakashi skidded to a halt as he felt Zabuza's breath hot against his neck. "You're dead Kakashi, try that again and I will cut off your head. Focus your attention for your fight is with me and I will make you see your weakness before I finish you."

Zabuza disappeared back into the mist. Kakashi steeled his mind even as a flare shot up from the forest he had just come from and burst into a bright light. He grit his teeth as another flare went off from the direction of Tazuna's house signifying the attack of Zabuza's mysterious help.

He turned from the bright flares and focused his mind. "Well then Zabuza, I guess I'll just have to kill you quickly."

* * *

Asuma swore as the cloaked ninja swung a huge bandage wrapped sword at him. He jumped backwards as the ninja slammed his sword into the ground and vaulted over the sword to kick off the blade and leap after Asuma, his sword swinging wildly at the bearded jounin.

Asuma cursed and twisted his body around to swing himself onto the massive sword swinging at him. He ran up the length of the blade and leaped forward to dive at the missing nin's throat with his knuckle blades outstretched. The enemy ninja leaned backwards in mid-air, swinging his sword to the side and using the momentum to hurl himself away. Asuma still managed to catch the edge of the kasa hat he wore, tearing it off to reveal the face of the missing nin.

They both landed on the water, Asuma quickly turned to face the figure, his breath hitching as he recognized the face from the bingo book. "Shit, so Gato managed to hire you Kisame. Guess he really likes the Seven Swordsman."

The blue-skinned swordsman chuckled softly before replying. "Apparently little Zabuza-chan couldn't deal with a few pesky jounin and their brats. He's really let himself go since we all tried to overthrow the Mizukage."

Asuma was stalling for as much time as he could manage. He had already used his flare tag and was hoping Kakashi arrived soon. He knew that killing Kisame would most likely cost him his life but if his fellow jounin showed up, they both might get out of this alive.

"So what was the deal with that anyway? The only thing the other villages heard was that the Seven Swordsman suddenly staged a coup against the government of Mist."

Kisame grinned nastily, "Sure, I'll humor your curiosity, you'll be dead soon anyway. It pretty much happened like you said, we all decided to overthrow the government and set ourselves up as the ruling power. I was tasked with killing the daimyo along with Kiyoko, another of my fellow swordsmen. Zabuza, Raiga, and Chojuro were supposed to kill the Mizukage while our remaining two brethren Genji and Benkei, were tasked with tying up those loyal to the Mizukage with our supporters."

Kisame closed his eyes momentarily, his face taking on a rare, thoughtful appearance as he relived the night. "I give Zabuza a lot of grief over his failure in the office of the Mizukage, but out of the surviving members of the seven, there is only one person I respect as much as him."

Kisame opened his eyes to stare at a tense Asuma, "We had a traitor in our midst. Chojuro had always been a loyal dog, just like the rest of us. But while the rest of us decided to bite back against the Mizukage, we never realized Chojuro was watching us for the Mizukage. Yagura was a bloody, ruthless dictator. We all assumed that if he ever got wind of our plot he would immediately act. The long wait with no reprisal made us confident, arrogant. That was our undoing."

* * *

(8 years ago)

Kisame cursed as yet another dragon made of water pounded the earth right behind him, showering him with chunks of earth and stinging water droplets. His sword shifted hungrily at the chakra permeating the air the dragon had passed through. He turned to where the feeling was strongest and dashed off through the small forest that made up the daimyo's garden. He quickly followed the slowly fading chakra trail and dropped out of the foliage to surprise the small team of ninja who had bombarding him and Kiyoko.

Once he was done, he jumped back out into the courtyard and resumed the chore of slaughtering the chunin and jounin who were attacking. He paused at a lull in the battle and looked back at Kiyoko who was kneeling down on the earth, one hand placed flat on the ground, the other forming a seal as she focused her chakra.

"Haven't you found him yet!" He shouted over the crashes and shouting of panicked guards and ninjas.

Kiyoko didn't even open her eyes as she replied. "It's not easy sensing his vibrations through all this chaos, I may have spent months memorizing his signature and voice but he's still surrounded by-" Her eyes snapped open and she smirked. "Found him. Seems he just screamed."

Kisame mouth twisted into a smirk that matched her own. "Well, we shouldn't keep a man of his stature waiting. Shall we?"

Kiyoko stood up and drew her butterfly sword from where she kept it at her waist. Slamming her free hand into the ground, she ripped out a huge chunk of earth and tossed it up into the air. Kisame leaped up onto it as it rose higher into the air, securing himself with chakra as the boulder fell. Kiyoko reared her fist back as it fell back to earth and let loose with a massive haymaker that sent the boulder flying through the air, Kisame safely aboard it.

The boulder rolled lazily through the air, the arc sending it high above the Daimyo's palace as Kisame stood up and secured his sword on his back. Once the boulder started to descend, he calculated it's trajectory and jumped off, his powerful leap sent him high into the air as he flew through hand-seals. He finished his jutsu at the same time the boulder crashed through the roof. Opening his mouth wide, he spit out a glob of water that quickly formed into a shark. Jumping onto it, he pulled his sword out and waited as it descended.

* * *

(Palace of the Daimyo)

"Where is our forces! Why isn't the Mizukage protecting me?" The Daimyo was shouting his head off to the six jounin who were guarding him. The task would usually fall to the Seven Swordsman but they were apparently rebelling, though the jounin were reluctant to tell the Daimyo that. "Why hasn't this rebellion been put down yet?"

"Sir, the Seven Swordsmen are the ones rebelling."

The Daimyo stopped in his tracks before screaming. When he had calmed down he pulled the jounin leader back, "Even Kisame?" The shark man had always been his favorite guard.

The jounin nodded, "He seems to be the one attacking your palace, the other swordsmen are attacking Hidden Mist."

The Daimyo trembled in rage before opening his mouth to shout orders. An action interrupted by the giant boulder crashing through the roof.

The protective contingent to the Daimyo had been devastated by the giant piece of rock that had smashed into them. It had barely missed the Daimyo and had taken out three of the six jounin guarding him. The remaining three were pulling themselves to there feet when a cackling laugh drew their eyes upward. One of them was swept of his feet by a shark made out of water that caught him in it's jaws and chewed his chest apart viciously before slamming him into a wall, his chest exposed as his broken ribs stabbed painfully into his major organs.

The next jounin was hit by a blue-skinned ninja who hit the ground running and caught the jounin with his sword, the massive blade slamming into his side and bending him almost in half along his side. Kisame completed his running swing and threw the jounin through the roof. His sword shredding the jounin's side for good measure.

The Daimyo was shouting off his head for the remaining jounin to kill Kisame.

Kisame casually stepped to the side and caught the fist of the last jounin, "Yeah no." Was the last thing the jounin heard before Kisame buried his fist in the man's gut. The jounin bent over in pain only for Kisame to knee the jounin in the face and grasp his sword in both hands to slam the jounin through the floor.

Kisame turned to face the quivering Daimyo, he walked over and grabbed the man by the throat, "Looking for me your majesty?" His voice was low and dangerous as he walked the Daimyo over to the nearest wall and proceeded to bash the Daimyo's head through various objects.

Once the broken, cooling corpse of the Daimyo lay at his feet, Kisame jumped out of the hole in the roof and made his way back to the courtyard.

Zabuza was there. His kneeling panting form covered in blood, some of it probably his own, given the wounds he was bearing but it was hard to tell with that sword of his. Kisame ran up to him, giving a quick nod to Kiyoko as he did so. "Zabuza, what are you doing here?"

The wielder of Kubikiri Hocho was silent for a moment before he spoke, "We made it to the Mizukage's office un-harassed but when we got there." His breath hitched, probably in rage. "Kisame, Chojuro's a traitor. He's been telling everything about our plans to the Mizukage, Raiga ran the moment he found out about Chojuro. I barely managed to escape, got Chojuro good before I left though. Knowing him though, he'll probably pull through."

Kisame was struggling to maintain his composure, "What about Genji and Benkei?"

Zabuza had hot tears of rage flowing down his face, "Dead, Genji was already gone when I got there but Benkei used the last of his life to use a sealing jutsu on the Mizukage. The Sanbi is currently making its way out of Mist, I bet that'll slow down any pursuit."

Kisame's breath hitched, "You mean?"

Zabuza chuckled darkly, "Yeah, mission accomplished Kisame. Yagura is dead."

Kiyoko cried silently for her fallen comrades, "So what now? We go kill Chojuro and take over?"

Kisame slowly shook his head, "No, the Seven Swordsmen are second in respect and influence only to the Mizukage. But it's the organization people respect, not the members. Unless we had all living members on our side, it would just look like a dirty coup by malcontents. We would still be locked in a civil war, the sides would just have changed. Damn that Chojuro, I swear if I ever see his face again I'll kill him."

He stood up, "But, we should have a clear run out of the country. With the Mizukage and the Daimyo dead, not to mention the Sanbi, the ninja should be in disorder and it'll be a while before they start chasing us."

Zabuza shook his head slowly, "Sorry, I don't think I'll be coming."

Kisame stared at him for a while before nodding, "The whole point of this was to get freedom Zabuza, I'm not about to take that away by ordering you to do anything. Go do as you wish, but remember this. If we meet again, it will most likely be enemies. The world of the missing nin is a brutal one."

Kisame turned around and walked off with Kiyoko at his heels. Zabuza hauled himself to his feet and walked off in another direction. The last sight Kisame had of Zabuza was his back as he disappeared into the trees.

* * *

The memory was just as painful now as whenever Kisame dwelled upon it. He quickly tore himself away from his past and gripped his sword tightly in preparation for the fight ahead. Asuma raised his trench knives in front him in response to Kisame's tension.

The shark-nin seemed to glide along the water, one powerful thrust after another of his legs propelling him along at a fast speed. Asuma leaped to the side as Samehada slammed the water where he had been standing. Lashing out at Kisame with his knives, he managed to cut a slice across Kisame's arm before the shark-nin could leap away.

Kisame looked down at his sleeve, the cut was bleeding but seemed to have missed anything potentially important. He grinned at Asuma, "I thought I dodged that blade entirely, looks like I'm getting sloppy in my old age."

Asuma didn't get a chance to reply as Kisame jumped straight at him, sword swinging. As he ducked and dodged he could only hope he managed to survive this fight.

* * *

"Come on Tazuna, you have to keep up."

Tazuna panted as he tried to keep up, Sakura's comments weren't helping, despite her best intentions.

"I'm doing my best girl, I am pretty old you know."

Sakura at least had the decency to look embarrassed. She quickly doubled back and began to help Tazuna along while Sasuke and Naruto took point, their heads swiveling back and forth in constant vigilance.

It was this vigilance that saved them. A hail of senbon flashed out of a tree, causing Naruto to shout out a warning and dive for cover behind a tree as Sakura dragged Tazuna to the ground and hauled him over to a tree. She shoved him down against the base of the tree and held a finger up to her lips. Tazuna shakily nodded as Sakura opened up her pack and began setting some basic traps around Tazuna. Not speaking, she pushed him to the ground and pulled the dry leaves and loam around on top of him.

Once he was basically covered, she hopped up into the trees and activated her flare tag before taking up an overwatch position. Naruto seemed to be running interference with Shadow clones, periodically sending them out in different directions. They never got too far before a senbon would flash out to nail them and disappear in a puff of smoke.

'Why is he just sending them out one after the other? It serves no purpose, unless.'

Sakura's thoughts were cut short as something flashed off in the trees. She barely got a glimpse of Sasuke as he ran along a tree branch. The area was still for a moment before Naruto sent out a fresh wave of clones. The senbon flashed again and the clones fell to the ground, the senbon sticking out of them clearly for a moment before they dispelled.

Sakura barely breathed as the forest grew quiet, she looked off into the trees as she saw Sasuke jump down from a tree branch, his form cloaked in shadow, his movements silent, his form perfect. Both of his kodachi were held downwards in preparation to stab their attacker.

He disappeared behind a tree trunk and a short series of blade clashes rang out through the forest. Naruto leaped up the tree trunk he was standing on and halfway up, he leaped off the trunk just as the masked form of Haku flew out of the foliage, her hands blurring as she threw senbon at Sasuke who jumped out after her, his kodachi blurring just as fast as he deflected the needles.

Naruto twisted upside down in mid-air and hit Haku's back like a sledgehammer. He wrapped his legs around her neck and twisted his body around to hurl her to the ground where she hit with a dull thud. Naruto reached out to Sasuke who grabbed his hand and threw Naruto down after Haku.

Naruto dropped from the sky like a lead weight. His right leg drawn back as he prepared to drive his knee into Haku. She looked up at the blond ninja plummeting down at her and cursed. Her form dissolved into water and sank into the ground just as Naruto hit the ground, his knee sinking several inches into the hard ground.

Haku rematerialized behind him, three senbon clutched between her fingers in preparation to drive them into the blond's neck. Still, she couldn't help but be impressed with the damage he would have done if he hit.

'If that had connected, my neck would have snapped like a dry twig.'

Her surprise attack was foiled as Sasuke appeared between her and Naruto, his hands lashing out, one of his kodachi sheathed as he attempted to grab and hold her long enough to get a critical blow in.

Naruto joined the fray as well, his opportunistic attacks only exacerbating the confusing melee. Haku finally jumped back, disengaging the two talented genin as she panted slightly.

"It's been a while since I was challenged this much. That was extremely clever how you force me out of hiding. But I have to ask, how did you manage to pinpoint my location by the direction in which my senbon were stuck in the clones?"

Sasuke smirked slightly, his eyes flashing into the red irises of the Sharingan. "Nothing escapes these eyes. The half-second before the clone dispelled was all I needed to figure out where you were attacking from."

Haku nodded slightly, "The infamous Sharingan. I suppose I should feel honored to see one. They are increasingly rare these days."

Sasuke growled low and vanished, reappearing behind Haku and lashing out with his single drawn kodachi, Haku spun around and delivered a high kick that knocked the kodachi out of his hand. She grabbed his now empty hand and twisted it around behind the genin's back and delivered two quick kicks to his knees. Sasuke was forced to ground and Haku deftly caught the kodachi from the air.

She leaned forward as she pulled back on Sasuke's arm and twisted it out of its socket. Reaching around his screamig form, she raised the kodachi to Sasuke's face and held it up level with his eyes. Pressing the blade slightly into the bridge of his nose, she whispered into his ear.

"Time to remove those pesky eyes." But she had focused too much on her opponent and before she could slash out Sasuke's eyes, she was caught by Naruto who hit her with a lariat, his curved arm catching her across the neck and hurling her into a nearby tree.

Sasuke panted as he popped his shoulder back into place and picked up his kodachi, which had dropped from Haku's hand when she was hit. He was enraged that this bitch would dare threaten his bloodline and he was prepared to take it out of her however he could.

Haku was angry now, she couldn't seem to get them. Whenever she seemed about to finish one off, the other would interfere. She just had to get faster than them. Her hands blurred through some hand-seals and a dome of ice mirrors appeared around her, enveloping the two genin.

Sasuke cursed as her image appeared in each mirror, her voice seemed to mock them as she spoke. "You were good, but you're outmatched. No one has seen this technique and lived. Goodbye."

Sasuke's head spun around as senbon flashed towards them. Naruto yelped and started dodging as best as he could. Sasuke sheathed his blade and he blurred through hand-seals before breathing out a ball of fire towards the nearest mirror.

The roaring ball of fire impacted the mirror, it hissed for a moment before melting partially. Sasuke almost let out a cheer before he saw the melted portion of the mirror reform at blinding speeds and Haku let loose another couple of senbon at him.

Cursing, he dived to the side once again. The only difference was that Haku had shifted her attention to Naruto now and Sasuke's Sharingan finally saw the secret to her jutsu. He gave Naruto a quick jerk of his head when the blond genin looked over at him. Naruto reached into his pocket and withdrew a handful of smoke bombs.

Quickly throwing them to different areas to cover the entire dome, Naruto ran over to where Sasuke was as the bombs went off and the dome filled with white smoke. "What is it Sasuke?"

Sasuke leaned in and whispered, "I saw the secret to her jutsu. She uses the ice mirrors to move blindingly fast from mirror to mirror. I can try to catch her with a fireball, but if I miss, she's going to target me. You got anything that might stop her?"

Naruto bit his lip as he tried to think fast before the smoke bombs dispersed. Haku would know if they tried to break through a mirror, if only they had some way to catch her when she flitted about. He hissed silently as he pulled out some of the senbon. They were more annoying than damaging, like an annoying insect.

He brightened, he did have a way to trap Haku! "Sasuke, I have a way to catch her. But once I do this, you need to get out of the dome fast. I can give you some cover but it'll be up to you to melt a mirror and jump out. Here's some explosive tags, tie them to kunai and focus on one."

Sasuke nodded and prepared the kunai. Naruto went through the short sequence of hand-seals for summoning. He held his hands in the last hand-seal and focused his chakra as much as possible. This was going to take quite a bit. He closed his eyes and focused inwards until he heard the dripping of water.

* * *

He opened his eyes to find himself in front of the bars that held Kyuubi. He shouted into the darkness, "Kyuubi! I need your help. Please loan me enough chakra to protect my friends. I need to summon one of your minions but it's going to take a lot out of me."

Kyuubi looked over her shoulder from where she had been resting against one of the bars in her human form and smiled nastily at him. "Well well, look who's come crying to me for help. What happened to all that bravado you had when we first met? Need the help of a demon to save your friends? Can't do it all on your own?"

Naruto nodded slowly and quickly reached through the bars to grasp her hand. By doing so, he crossed a line that he could never go back from. He knew that if she wished she could shred his consciousness if she chose to do so. Kyuubi looked down in shock at the first physical contact she had had in twelve years. The same thoughts ran through her head as Naruto squeezed her hand while staring at her eyes. "I know Kyuubi, I admit that I need your help and I trust you to help me when you can. I think I can call you a friend after all our talks and I think you want to call me one as well."

Kyuubi looked down from where Naruto's eyes bored into hers, a few tears escaped her eyes as she smiled softly. "Make sure you don't go and get yourself killed alright? I don't want to be stuck somewhere alone anymore."

Naruto smiled brightly at her, "Alright! It's a promise, I'll always be down here for you to yell at me. After all, if I didn't who would?" And with that he disappeared.

Kyuubi sighed as she felt some of her power separate and funnel itself through the seal. Settling herself back against the bars to think she smiled softly again, 'He really must be rubbing off on me. Only a few weeks ago I would've ripped him to shreds. What a kid.'

* * *

Naruto snapped his eyes open as a wave of chakra flew out from him. He yelled out as the smoke from the bombs blew away in a second.

"Now Sasuke!"

With that he slammed his hand into the ground, the explosion of smoke filled the entire center of the dome as Sasuke threw his explosive kunai at a mirror and flew through the seals for the Grand Fireball jutsu. The distraction of Naruto's chakra and the large summon allowed the kunai to hit their targets freely. The explosions went off as Sasuke blew out a huge fireball.

He leapt out of the dome just as Haku turned her attention back to him. She quickly let fly senbon that hit Sasuke in the legs, causing his muscles to freeze up. He landed with a painful sounding thud and let loose a cry of pain.

Sakura jumped down from where she had been observing the fight and grabbed Sasuke's arm. Grateful now for her recent physical training, she hauled him onto her shoulders and pulled him up to her perch where they could observe the fight.

Naruto cursed as he heard Sasuke's cry of pain. He turned to the hunter-nin, his mind clouded with rage by the Kyuubi's chakra and growled, "I'm going to kill you."

Haku gasped as he seemed ready to make good on his threat. The malevolent chakra combined with the giant spider behind him intimidated even her. Naruto turned to the Dokufu behind him and fixed it with a stare, the Kyuubi's chakra still swirling around him. The Dokufu chittered loudly and shrunk down on all 8 legs. Naruto quickly ran forward and glued himself to the underbelly of the armored spider.

The Dokufu worked quickly, it's large form spinning around to weave webbing across the mirrors until the dome was thick with the sticky strands. Haku tried to disable the beast with her senbon but found her efforts futile due to the creature's armor, her lack of knowledge about the spider's anatomy, and the creature's surprising speed.

All too soon, she found herself the master of a dome of ice mirrors she could not move between. Cursing, she decided to retreat to fight another day. Dispelling the mirrors she leapt off into the trees.

Naruto let go of the Dokufu's belly and quickly spoke, "Get her, I don't care what you do with her but don't let her get away." He henged into Zabuza and spoke once more, "This is her companion, you know what to do."

The Dokufu chittered once more before skittering into the treetops. Naruto dispelled the henge and turned to his team. He walked over to where Sakura was slowly pulling out the senbon. She looked up at him and looked behind him. "Where is she? Did she get away?"

Naruto gave her a grim smile, "She won't get far. Dokufu are just as good as hunter nin."

* * *

Haku panted as she leaped down into the small clearing where Zabuza ordered her to meet up with him if something went wrong. She settled back against a tree and pulled off her mask, she hissed through clenched teeth as she started treating her wounds. The cuts were shallow, but she had a rather nasty burn from where the Uchiha had almost gotten her with his fireball.

She whirled around as a twig snapped, senbon clutched between her fingers. Her hand dropped to her side though as she saw Zabuza stumble out from between the trees. His chest was bleeding from a nasty gash and his form was littered in bruises. She rushed over to him.

"Zabuza-sama!" She caught his body as he collapsed to the ground. She quickly began to look him over before pausing. A black, twisting group of fibrous material was sticking out of his back. She looked at it and followed it with her eyes up to where it ended in the treetops.

The Dokufu hung above her in the treetops, it's two front legs coming together in front of it's body, manipulating the black cable that sprung from it's mouth like someone would a puppet. The form of Zabuza in her arms melted into a tangle of black fibers that moved like lightning to grab her hands as the Dokufu held on to the trees with it's four middle legs and swung it's abdomen down to slam into her stomach.

The stinger punched into her quickly, delivering it's payload of paralyzing poison. Haku fell back under the force of the blow, the stinger pulling out of her with a wet squelch. Her body thudded to the ground as her hands trembled their way up to her bleeding wound. The Dokufu reeled up it's fibers into it's mouth and started its descent down towards Haku.

Her eyes were wide with terror as the Dokufu picked her up and began wrapping her up in it's webbing. The poison was working fast until she could barely move her neck. The Dokufu wrapped her up until her body was wrapped up to the neck completely in white webbing. Before her mouth was paralyzed she managed one last scream as the Dokufu leaned down to start feeding.

* * *

Naruto looked up from where he was sitting against the base of a tree as a scream rang through the forest before suddenly cutting off. The ensuing silence was just as terrifying to Sakura as she turned towards Naruto.

"Naruto?"

The blond genin stayed quiet for a moment before he sighed, "It's done, she won't be hurting anyone again."

Sakura fell quiet at the thought of the dead ninja and busied herself with helping Tazuna from his hiding space and Sasuke who was getting his legs working again.

It was probably fifteen minutes before Naruto looked over at Sakura, "Kakashi's coming."

Sure enough, the masked jounin leapt into the clearing and looked around before walking over to the genin. "Everyone okay?"

Sasuke slowly stood up before nodding quickly, "I'll be fine."

Sakura nodded and Naruto followed suit before reporting, "The masked companion of Zabuza is terminated Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi looked at him with some surprise in his visible eye before smiling. "I'm very proud of you all, you held out in your first fight against a missing-nin and came out victorious. Not many can claim that you know. Now let's get you patched up and back to the house."

Sakura spoke, she had seen the signal flare go off near the house. "Isn't Asuma-sensei fighting someone?"

Kakashi slowly shook his head, "Asuma's opponent arrived just as I was about to finish off Zabuza. He hit me pretty hard and picked Zabuza up before running off, he didn't say why."

In truth, Kisame had said why. After the explosion of demonic chakra that doubtlessly came from Naruto, Kisame had arrived to warn Kakashi that they would meet again as the Kyuubi was too important to be left in the hands of Konoha. Soon afterwards, Asuma had arrived and relayed the news that once they felt the Kyuubi chakra, Kisame had abandoned their fight and ran off.

Kakashi focused back on the present as he led his team back to the house of Tazuna. It was time to finish this damn mission.

* * *

Gato scrambled back as his bodyguards fell to the ground dead. Kisame stepped forward, a furious Zabuza close behind him. "Unfortunately for you Gato, our organization requires a great deal of money and secrecy. Both of which can be accomplished on your death."

Zabuza growled low, "I haven't agreed to your offer just yet Kisame. Don't call it our organization just yet. I have to find Haku."

Kisame turned around, "The girl? She's dead. Got eaten by a giant spider summoned by the blond brat of Kakashi's."

Zabuza choked, his eyes filling with rage. Kisame smiled nastily, "The same boy that is targeted by Akatsuki for being the container of the Kyuubi. If you join, I can guarantee you get in on the capture of him."

Zabuza was trembling with rage by the time he nodded his agreement. Kisame smiled before adopting a look of comic horror, his mouth wide in shock. "Oh no! I've said too much around someone else. Sorry Gato but your lack of deafness has sealed your fate. We might be tided over by all your money though."

Gato nodded his head furiously and went over to a safe in the wall before quickly opening it and pulling out sheafs of papers and packets full of account numbers and locations of his company assets.

Kisame happily took them, "Ah yes, Kakuzu will be very happy with this. Now, Zabuza, mind tying up this loose end?"

Gato squeaked in terror, "No! You said I was fine."

Kisame frowned at him and shook a finger at the businessman. "Now, now, no one likes a whiner. Today is simply not your day my friend. Zabuza, he's all yours, go ahead and vent a bit, I'll be waiting outside."

Kisame walked out whistling some tune, a stack of papers containing information on potential millions under his arm as Zabuza grabbed Gato by the throat and slammed him through the desk. Zabuza grinned behind his bandages, "God I love therapy."

* * *

Back at Tazuna's house Kakashi sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So you say you need to go to the temple of some strange religion that's here in Wave and find the summon for this scroll and defeat him to gain control of the contract. And you expect me to take our team with you and risk all our lives on something that will benefit you and none of us. You expect me to risk my status as a jounin-sensei and endanger the lives of Sasuke and Sakura just so you can complete your collection! Just like that!"

Naruto answered, "Yes."

Kakshi sat down from where he had stood up menacingly during his rant and blinked once before speaking in a resigned tone. "Oh all right then."

* * *

"You had better have a good reason for calling us all Kisame. We don't all need to hear that you completed your mission."

Kisame smirked, despite the threatening tone in the Pein's voice. "Oh I have a great deal of good news."

He held up the stack of papers, "I have here the entire financial details and secrets of the Gato corporation. Access numbers, account information, assets, deposit boxes, warehouses, contacts, and the details and keys on a nice little resort mansion and spa he keeps in the capital of Fire country."

Kakuzu was salivating by the end, but he wasn't about to let anyone know so he simply said, "Excellent."

Pein nodded, "Indeed, good work Kisame, I assume Gato is not in a state to protest our utilization of his resources?"

Kisame shook his head, "No, but it wasn't me who finished him off. It was a new recruit for Akatsuki I found. Momochi Zabuza, another former Swordsman of the Mist. He's a little rusty but that's only brought him down to A-class. Pair him up with Kiyoko and she'll whip him back into S-class shape in no time."

Pein nodded again, "Excellent work Kisame, I must say it is nice to have three of the original Seven Swordsmen working for us. Get him a cloak and have him meet up with Kiyoko. She can fill him in on the rest while he gets back into shape."

The second female member of Akatsuki nodded and flicked her glance over at Zabuza who stood a few feet behind Kisame.

Pein continued, "Now if there is nothing else."

Kisame spoke up again, "Ah but I have one more piece of news that completely overshadows both of my other reports."

Kakuzu snorted, "Unlikely, something that overshadows millions of ryo and another Seven Swordsman? Stop trying to make yourself look good Kisame, nobody buys it and you just look like a fool."

Kisame grinned nastily, "I just so happened to find our missing Kyuubi jinchuriki."

The silence in the room could be cut with a knife, even Zetsu hadn't been able to find the Kyuubi jinchuriki since the beast disappeared. The secret had been so tightly kept by the Third Hokage that no one could discover the identity of the last jinchuriki.

Kakuzu was stunned speechless as his partner turned to him, "Ha."

Kakuzu growled low, "Shut up Hidan."

-AN-

And end of the Chapter 4 rewrite.


End file.
